Healthcare in America: Remote Area Medical's Lifeline

(Comment-Cody Lyon)This February 28, 60 Minutes report will probably go down as one of the most important and moving stories ever produced in television journalism. CBSNEWS' 60 Minutes holds up a mirror to America, and the reflection we see is a heartbreaking, cruel and unjust crisis in America's Health Care system. Absent from the story are the familiar policy wonks and debates over political rhetoric. Instead, viewers see and hear real life stories that illustrate the cold reality facing those who have no insurance or inadequate coverage at best.

But, it is also a story about real life angels like Stan Brock, founder of the organization "Remote Area Medical" or RAM, who works with teams of volunteer health care providers by setting up weekend clinics, that offer free health, dental and eye care to the often poor or working class who have inadequate policies or are fully uninsured.

As it stands, an estimated 47 million citizens of the world's wealthiest nation have no health insurance. While that's a startling number, even more startling are some of the real life stories shared in this report. It left this viewer asking, how is it that we as a nation allowed ourselves to become so indifferent to the plight of our own?

Thank you RAM for your efforts at providing some relief to these fellow Americans and thank you 60 Minutes for restoring some faith in the mission of modern day journalism.

FULL CBS NEWS 60 Minutes Report below:
CBS) One of the decisive issues in the presidential campaign is likely to be health insurance. Texas and Ohio vote on Tuesday, and those states alone have nearly seven million uninsured residents; nationwide, 47 million have no health insurance. But that's just the start: millions more are underinsured, unable to pay their deductibles or get access to dental care.

Recently, 60 Minutes heard about an American relief organization that airdrops doctors and medicine into the jungles of the Amazon. It's called Remote Area Medical, or "RAM" for short.

As correspondent Scott Pelley reports, Remote Area Medical sets up emergency clinics where the needs are greatest. But these days, that's not the Amazon. This charity founded to help people who can't reach medical care finds itself throwing America a lifeline.


LINK TO FULL REPORT FROM CBS NEWS "60 Minutes"